Tuesdays and Sundays is based on an actual love story that took place in 1887, in a community not unlike our own. The play effectively creates two worlds, the limbo in which young Mary and William awaken at the opening, and the riverside community in which they meet and fall in love. The two worlds are not separate, however. Through language and memory, the pair recreate their courtship while still in their dreamlike state, which could be one day, or one hundred years, after their story ended. 

The decision to stage Tuesdays and Sundays in Victoria Park, on the island, came as a response to a desire deep inside this text – and, indeed, inside most young people in love – to escape. Victoria Park Island is a place of play, of nature, of romance, and perhaps most of all, it is a place of escape from the pressures of the surrounding city. Or is it? The park is, in fact, a veritable ‘green world’ associated with everything from the romantic figures in Shakespeare’s comedies to the urban planner’s vision of a place providing sanctuary from the harsh timetables and concrete structures of the city. But as the writing of Shakespeare or the plans of Bernard Tschumi will show us, the green world is most importantly a place containing opposites that convey much about the human aspect of these urban preserves of nature. Among the peace and tranquility of these spaces lurks destructive, chaotic elements; with the potential for romance there is a threat of madness or violence. Tschumi liked this paradoxical nature of a city park, and envisioned them as spaces of folie – which, beyond its reference to madness, to him meant a place of sensual intensity. As we have developed this performance in the park, the reality of its environment has been a source of challenge and liberation. For artist and audience alike, Victoria Park provides an escape from the limits of conventional theatre staging; here we may fully engage with the sensations of a real place. I trust that the challenge of the park’s reality will work to liberate this story, and that our escape will ultimately lead us back to ourselves.      

Thank you for joining our talented ensemble of performers as they guide you around Victoria Park Island, and become mediums to the dreams, desires, and memories of this enchanting site and story.

This performance is very much a collective creation, and I am indebted to the skill and innovation of the cast and crew.